Thursday, May 29, 2008

When you think of houses in Japan, don't you think of glossy architecture and tiny apartments? There are plenty of those around, of course, but in the countryside and big cities alike, there are still a lot of old houses for the photographer to discover. Today I'll be starting a series of the old, quaint and other interesting buildings that I have photographed during my visits to Japan.

The building above is a pawnshop in Takayama. One of those places you'll be sure to bump your head when entering as the door reaches less than 1.80m (6ft).

Monday, May 26, 2008

Night shot from Castle Hill over the Széchenyi Chain Bridge and the basilica. Taken from my tripod with an exposure of 15 seconds for an f/20 and an ISO value of 200. The difficulty was that the bridge was much brighter lit than the basilica and the rest of the town.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

View from the hotel. Isn't this what you would expect a street in Eastern Europe to look like? Empty, except for a single bus and lined with blocks and blocks of drab apartment buildings? The truth is that you'll have a hard time finding a location like that and the way the Hungarians keep building and reconstructing, soon none of the 1950 apartment buildings will be left.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

An exhibition of "talking stones" at the Palais Royal in Paris, just outside the Louvre Museum. There were several stones and they would strike up conversations amongst themselves. Very cleverly done with the projection on the stones which really gave believable facial expressions.

I was sort of reminded of them when I was in Chicago last January where they had these talking walls in the Millennium Park.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Even more stairs when you get to Fisherman's Bastion. The Bastion takes its unusual name from the guild of fishermen which was responsible for defending this stretch of the city walls in the Middle Ages. The Bastion itself was erected between 1895 and 1902.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

A photo I took while getting familiar with my MZ-S. I like the delicacy of this shot and the depth-of-field works well, IMO.

Note that I have opened a new photoblog at Aminus3 that I will use to showcase my better photos, I would appreciate it if you could check it our or subscribe to it. The title of the blog, There Will Come Soft Rains, comes from a short 12-line poem by Sara Teasdale written in 1920.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Coming back from taking the night shots from the top of Castle Hill, I couldn't resist taking this shot now that I had my tripod with me. If you have been hanging around this blog since last year, you might remember that I did a course for Zoom-In and I used "benches" as my assignment.

The reason I like this shot is the unreal feeling it captured that was created by the light used.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Rooftops have always fascinated me but they are so difficult to capture in a single photo. This is not a great photo, but it captures a little of the image I had at the time. The trick is to make the difference between the cropped view of a photo and the depth-of-field work in your advantage and capture the essence, and if you can do that consistently, you have reached grand-master level, IMO. Visualize, visualize and visualize... ^_^;;

Thursday, May 15, 2008

A 20 seconds exposure of the Fisherman's Bastion, the oft-photographed terrace in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style with a part of the Matthias Church visible all the way to the left and the Hilton hotel behind that church.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

A statue being sandblasted at the Fisherman's Bastion, the sand and the grime splattered back on the person almost turns him into a living statue.

Talking of living statues, I was happily surprised that there were none around; I didn't see a single one during my stay there. In London or Paris when you get close to a tourist attraction you can find them in any form and shape. The musicians in the restaurants are everywhere, though, and we didn't escape 'An der schönen blauen Donau' of course ^_^;;

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Around Castle Hill you are never far away from an aerobic workout and it was a pity that Wii Fit had not been released at the time of our trip. ^_^

Reminiscent of Montmartre in Paris, the footpath from the hotel to the top of Castle Hill was beautiful but, like in Paris, I failed to record that quality of the steps on photo. The yellow filter which gives the foliage the almost transparent quality really helps this shot.

Monday, May 12, 2008

There is a funicular to get to the top of the hill at Castle Hill, Budapest, but it is much more fun to walk up to it. The day we arrived, however, we went up and over the hill so many times exploring the town that we were completely exhausted and luckily we found a place selling Weißbier and goulash soup which might not be the recommended combination, but it did taste so very good! ^_^;;

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

This is the same passage as in this photo, but taken from the other side and at another time of day such that the other side is backlit once again. The over exposure of the backlit parts nicely covers up the streams of tourists passing by in the background. :-)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

One building on the top of Castle Hill still bears the scars of the Battle of Buda which had taken more than 3 months with the Germans and the somewhat reluctant Hungarian forces dug in in the catacombs of Castle Hill and Gellért Hill, and the approaching Red Army having encircled the town. Despite being cut off of supplies and starving, the defenders refused to surrender and defended every street and house, fighting Soviet troops and tanks.

One of the local people I talked to during my visit had witnessed the battle as a young girl and had kept a day-by-day diary of the battle which she had last lost unfortunately after the war and she was still very upset by that. I had just taken the long exposure photo of Castle Hill and was still admiring the view when she said: "It is all new, you know." Having seen footage of the state of German and Russian cities just after the war, I could image that by the end of the Battle of Buda, Castle Hill must have been completely in ruins. We had quite a chat about the battle and how it had been for the people living in Budapest.

Monday, May 05, 2008

This is one of the photos I brought back from Budapest that I enjoyed the most: the backlit, slightly bokeh figures in the passage, the lit up leaves in the top left corner, and the two shields well separated from their backgrounds.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

As I have shown the previous days, Budapest is a very beautiful city but it is also a city where you get confronted with the complicated past at almost every turn. Memorials for the uprisings of 1848 and 1956 are spread throughout the centre and, on the stone embankment of the Danube, you'll find a holocaust memorial for the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944-45. Erected 16 April 2005.

My Photos

About Me

Photography is my passion, and I know it's yours. When other tourists turn over in their beds or are having a scrumptious dinner, we find ourselves outside, trying to get the light just right on that one subject we have been trying to catch all week. "How many photos can you take of that?" people ask. "Until I capture it the way I want it," we know the answer is; and then some more.